0:00:00 - 0:00:30 So last night, I uh had more trouble than usual, staying asleep. And so I got up very early, uh grateful for an opportunity to get ahead on some things I had in mind. But as I got started in my day, I had uh an impression that I need to make a video um loosely about a few uh things that some people have 0:00:29 - 0:01:04 said in days, weeks and months past, there's sort of a common theme in three or four comments that I had either um via email or, or youtube comments or even there's one Amazon review and I spent uh two hours making a few attempts at this and each time I did, uh the Lord said that that's not good enough 0:01:03 - 0:01:35 . And um I thought that maybe there wasn't a way forward with that, but um he told me to try again and uh I think that this one will be sufficient each time I've done this, he's shown me a different way to say it. So I want to share with you a reflection from John chapter 10. Um So this is uh a take 0:01:34 - 0:02:05 an interpretation on verses 37 and 38 to give you some context of this story. This is when um Jesus equates himself with the father and then the Jews take up stones to kill him. And um I I said equate that, that's not precise word. He said he was indistinguishable from the father and of course, they 0:02:05 - 0:02:33 thought that was blasphemy. Um But, but just a little while there, there's a, an ex part of the exchange. I'm not going to uh go over because it's not the focus of what I'd like to say. But picking up in verse 37 he starts to explain the way that God provides for us to make use of the demonstrations 0:02:32 - 0:02:59 . He provides of how He is, that exceeds what we already know and are so one of the goals, if not the goal of the gospel is to give us the opportunity to perceive more of how God is. And unfortunately, uh frequently in our pursuits, we evaluate punitive truth based on how well it aligns with what we 0:02:58 - 0:03:27 already believe. And so even if it's new information, we think that how we feel about it or how it makes us feel is an indication of how true it is. Um more often than not, it's just a reflection on how we are not how things are. And um in another place, uh Jesus said, judge righteous judgment. In other 0:03:27 - 0:03:46 words, don't judge things according to how they seem, judge things according to how they are Well, how are you going to know how they are? Because we don't know how things are. Only God does. The answer lies in drawing nearer to him and becoming more like Him in all ways because you can't separate that 0:03:46 - 0:04:10 out. You can't fragment it and become like him in just some ways. It's an all or nothing affair and we ascend to him at once. Not from where we are to where he is in one step. That's not what I mean. I mean in breadth across all domains, we ascend at once. And so this, this is the reason why some attempts 0:04:09 - 0:04:33 to draw nearer to God fall flat is because they're limited in scope. Um I talked about this in another video on repentance. You can't just sin in, you can't repent of a sin. You have to repent of all sin, you have to fix all deviations from your current understanding of God and uh doing that partially 0:04:32 - 0:05:10 is not going to work anyway. So the question is, how do we know when uh when the deviation of putative truth from our present understanding is a pathway to draw closer to God. In other words, we let go of what bothers us and receive, what uh is shown to extend beyond us. Or um the other case is when 0:05:09 - 0:05:36 that putative truth is in fact uh degrading diminutive or um in some other way, retrograde from what we currently believe. How do we know whether something is good. Well, all good comes from above. And so the question of whether it's good or not is a question of whether the the tree produces sweet fruit 0:05:36 - 0:06:05 or bitter fruit, whether the fountain produces sweetwater or bitter water, whether it's productive or poison. So, with that preamble, let's read these reflections 37 and 38 from John Chen 10, Jesus says, if I don't accomplish what the father wills, then do not trust me or replicate what I do. If you 0:06:05 - 0:06:34 find that what you presently understand as the father's will is more fully accomplished in this world through what I do, then do it yourself as you do the breadth and accuracy of your understanding of the Father will advance as it does. You will find that my actions continue to align with your improved 0:06:33 - 0:07:04 understanding of the Father. In this way, you will gain ample evidence that I am aligned with the father and the Father is aligned with me. And that adopting my example is the most direct way of learning how the Father is and becoming like him. Jesus came to demonstrate to us how the Father is in a context 0:07:03 - 0:07:36 , we could understand in a context, we could perceive value and receive and become ourselves. All of God's servants do the same thing, his real servants. So while there's an abundance of people sharing their opinions and guesses as to how God is, there are some out there sharing their own experience 0:07:35 - 0:08:08 with Him, their first hand account or witness of how God is. And if you want to know the worth of what they're sharing, the best way is to experiment upon their words. If you actively think about your current understanding of how God is, and you think about the parts of that, that you are unable to replicate 0:08:08 - 0:08:38 in your life so far. If you can find another person who's able to replicate those parts, you should look at that person as an example that has the potential of demonstrating more of what God is like to you. Your tools for evaluating that potential messenger do not include how well they align with what 0:08:37 - 0:09:05 you believe God is like and what you already do until you've repented of all of your sins. The best indication of whether that person is a true messenger is how effectively they do. What currently overcomes you in your own perspective, from your own perspective. If you struggle with some sin, the question 0:09:04 - 0:09:28 is, do they struggle with that sin? If they've overcome that limitation, that you still struggle with, they, by definition have something you do not have. And it's something that aligns completely with your understanding of how God is. And so it's immune from their um ability to counterfeit or hack that 0:09:28 - 0:09:56 in some way. So by following value that you know about and that you know, you lack, you can use that to encounter value. You currently don't have the ability to evaluate which likely far exceeds the value of what you're presently seeking. So that's the key. And what Jesus told these people who were ready 0:09:56 - 0:10:15 to kill him because they didn't like what he had to say. And, and one common thing that happened with Jesus is people wanted some of what he was saying, they wanted the stuff that made them feel good as they were, they wanted the stuff that fulfilled their current desires in the way they imagined they'd 0:10:15 - 0:10:41 fulfill them. But he came with everything and they didn't want the stuff that exceeded what they were ready to hear, even though it was better than what they were ready to hear. And so he gave them this key to help them unlock what, what lay beyond their present understanding and desire. And he said 0:10:40 - 0:11:09 , if you see that, what I'm doing, helps accomplish the Father's will, then do it yourself. So, so the Father's will beyond what you're accomplishing. So for example, the Pharisees, the staunchest pharisee could recognize that healing a leper of leprosy was a good thing, maybe not doing it on the Sabbath 0:11:08 - 0:11:38 day, but healing a, a leper was a good thing. And it was a thing that the Pharisees could not do. So when Jesus came along and did it, it was a, a demonstration of greater information from God beyond what they had. And they should have used that to look at the fact that sometimes he healed people on 0:11:38 - 0:12:06 the Sabbath as another opportunity for even greater information that that wasn't just beyond their current understanding information, but also beyond their current understanding in terms of desire. So I invite you to do this. There have been folks who have uh gotten upset at this or that thing that I 0:12:06 - 0:12:39 said, which only bothers me to the extent that it would cause them to turn away from things that would be beneficial to them. Um, I don't exactly get paid per view here. Um, in fact, I think that, uh, my ministry is demonstrably, uh, negatively correlated to my financial well being. Um, but it's very 0:12:39 - 0:13:01 important, um, to judge righteous judgment. And the only way to do that is to plug into what lies above where you are. Because if God's trying to send you something better than what you already have, it's not going to seem that way to you, the more valuable it is the less good it will seem to you right 0:13:01 - 0:13:26 now because you're not there. That's the whole point. But God reaches down and he desires to lift us up, but he can't do that beyond our willingness to receive. So it's of supreme importance that we fine tune our ability to accurately assess, um, offered value that lies beyond what we have currently 0:13:25 - 0:13:49 . And you don't get there by looking at something that's evidently better than what you have coming from. Someone who's evidently demonstrated many things beyond what you could produce yourself that, you know, are good. You don't get there by treating that as something that's not valuable or that's equal 0:13:48 - 0:14:12 to what you could produce. So if the fruits are good, presume the tree is good and if you have good fruit and then a piece of what seems like bitter fruit, either you have to make the sweet fruit bitter and say I was wrong about that and those aren't actually good things or you have to make the bitter 0:14:11 - 0:14:35 fruit sweet and say, you know, maybe what seems bad about this is actually something bad in me. Maybe this is an opportunity for me to improve rather than the demonstration of a necessity of improvement on the part of the tree. I hope that that's clear and I'm glad that this one is sufficient.